Google is trying to position itself as an “AI first” company with research centers in Tokyo, Zurich, New York, Paris and other centers around the world. The American tech giant announced plans to open the AI research in Ghana’s capital, Accra, in 2018. The goal was to provide researchers with the necessary tools to build products that can solve Africa’s problems especially in healthcare and agriculture.
Moustapha Cisse, Africa team lead at Google AI.
The Accra office, which is the first in Africa, will join similar AI research centres in Paris, Tel Aviv, and, San Francisco. Moustapha Cisse, Head of Google AI was quoted by Business Insider South Africa saying
“AI is a critical tool used today and used to accelerate all sorts of sciences in physics, chemistry and engineering. But most of the people working and advancing the science and developing it in the field are based mostly in Western countries.
“It’s important that such an important field [can address] a diversity of the problems that the world faces today, and Africa is accurately represented.”
“Most of what we do in our research centers at Google and not just in Accra, we publish it and open-source code, so that everybody can use it to build all sorts of things,” he added.
Cisse, an expert from Senegal, says the center directly engages with researchers in African universities by providing grants to those interested in the various fields of AI and giving Ph.D. scholarships.
Link to Articles
- Google Opens its First African AI Center in Ghana
- Google has opened its first Africa Artificial Intelligence lab in Ghana
- Google Officially Opens First AI Centre In Africa; Ghana Base To Be Headed By Moustapha Cisse